Produced by Bob Clearmountain and Bryan Adams.  Associate producer Jim Vallance.  Recorded by Bob Clearmountain, September 1986, at Cliffhanger Studios, West Vancouver.  Mixed by Bob Clearmountain, January 1987, at AIR Studios, London.

Bryan recorded "Into The Fire" in 1986 at "Cliffhanger", his home studio in West Vancouver. Originally built as a cottage in the 1920s, the house is perched on the edge of a cliff (hence the studio's name).

One entire wall of the studio was windows, providing a spectacular view of the ships in the harbour and the city of Vancouver in the distance.

As a rule I didn't spend much time in the studio during the recording of any of Bryan's albums. One day, however, I dropped by when Bryan and producer Bob Clearmountain were working on the title track, "Into The Fire".

When I arrived, Bob was sitting behind Bryan's recording console, deep in concentration as he listened to a playback of the track. I leaned over the back of the console, between the speakers ... my favourite spot for listening.

As I listened to the playback I noticed a possible problem with the guitar sound ... or at least, an opportunity for improvement.

On our demo recording of "Into The Fire" we'd used a Rockman pocket amplifier, which delivers a very clean, sparkling guitar sound. For me, that sound was a critical element in the song, and I was concerned by its absence from the track. I waited for the playback to finish, then as politely as possible I said, "Bob, do you think the guitar could be a bit brighter?".

Wrong choice of words!

Clearmountain had a mini-tantrum. He pushed his chair back from the console and said, "I don't need some guy coming in here telling me how to get guitar sounds!".

I was shocked, and also terribly embarrassed that I'd upset Bob, and possibly disrupted the work-flow of the recording session. I didn't know what to say or do, but I managed to gather myself together enough to quietly say, "I'm not some guy, Bob. I wrote the song".

To his credit Bob apologized for the outburst. Really, he's a very sweet fellow, a true gentleman. I expect he was having a bad day, and I happened to arrive at the wrong moment.

Bryan and Bob re-recorded the guitars with the "brighter" sound, and we were able to have a laugh about the whole thing later. As an added bonus, I drew inspiration from the incident and named my publishing company "Some Guy Songs".